I'd think they'd get better play if they enforced stricter time limits on skits and were militant about it. Don't give everyone three minutes to bore the audience, stick to a minute to two minutes.

One thing I think sci-fi cons do better, in that regard, is mix up the skits and walk-ons. Or, really, they don't have a distinction between them. There is no category for either, everything is just 'performance.' If it's clear from rehearsal or the tech sheet that the performance is a skit of some kind, a good director mixes it up by staggering the skits between the walk-ons, or vice versa, so you don't have too many of the same thing all following each other.

I am really curious where anime cons got the concept of the skit so ingrained, that they have such a wall between skit and walk-on, and sometimes even have whole separate contests for skits. I have seen what I guess qualify as "skits" at sci-fi cons, but they're not very long, and often just a punchline with a good lead-in. Even CONvergence, whose halftime show is their in-house acting troupe Soylent Theatre, has never had a major influx of skits. It's kind of baffling, I wonder where the anime con thing came out of.

__________________Founder and Vice-President, Madison Area Costuming Society, a chapter of the International Costumer's Guild